viaduct like that gossamer structure three hundred and five feet high
and nearly a half-mile long across the Kinzua Creek, in Pennsylvania.
Problems which have nothing to do with mechanics often try his courage
and tax his resources, and many difficulties though apparently trivial,
develop into serious troubles. The caste of the different native gangs
who worked on the twenty-seven viaducts built in Central Africa is a
case in point: each group belonging to the same caste had to be
provided with its own quarters, cooking utensils, and camp furniture,
and dire were the consequences of a mix-up during one of the frequent
moves made by the whole party.

[Illustration: BEGINNING AN AMERICAN BRIDGE IN MID-AFRICA]

And so the work of a bridge builder, whether it is creating out of a
mere jumble of facts and figures a giant structure, the shaping of
glowing metal to exact measurements, the delving in the slime under
water for firm foundations, or the throwing of webs of steel across
yawning chasms or over roaring streams, is never monotonous, is often
adventurous, and in many, many instances is a great civilising
influence.




SUBMARINES IN WAR AND PEACE


During the early part of the Spanish-American war a fleet of vessels
patrolled the Atlantic coast from Florida to Maine. The Spanish Admiral
Cervera had left the home waters with his fleet of cruisers and